"I TOLD YOU SO!!!".... that’s the text I got from a MAGA buddy, all caps, with a link stuck under it like a tick on a hound.

Now, when you live in a small rural town that went 85 percent for Trump last election, you are not a blue dot in a red county. You are more like a blue speck of lint on a red flannel shirt. If you cut MAGA folks out of your social circle here, you wouldn’t have a social circle.

So I click the link. Up pops Joe Rogan, the man with over 16 million followers on YouTube and more than 18 million on X talking to a guest. Rogan says in the past, he never believed Trump could be tangled up in the Epstein mess because Trump swore up and down that on day one he would release the files, name names, and haul the guilty off in handcuffs. That promise was red meat to his base, you know the whole “Promises Made-Promise Kept” thing. But now Trump is ducking and weaving like a fox with dogs on his trail, refusing to release the complete Epstein Files. Joe said to his guest, “I’m a Believer Now!”.

For folks who ain’t been keeping score, the Epstein conspiracy theory goes something like this. Jeffrey Epstein was a smooth-talking operator who ran a private island where some of the world’s richest and most powerful men went to do things, illegal things, they sure didn’t want in the media. The girls involved were underage. The theory says these men were recorded, photographed, and blackmailed. That dirt, in the hands of the right people, gave them the power to steer governments, buy off justice, and protect themselves no matter who got hurt.

MAGA campaign folks ran with that story like it was a fox hunt. They painted it as a Democrat-only disease. The Epstein Files were promoted as proof that liberals, Hollywood, and Washington elites were running a shadow government of perverts. It became the root stock for all kinds of other claims, Pizza-gate, bathroom bills, CRT in schools, banning books, the war on transgender people and dangerous Illegal aliens. The rallying cry was always “PROTECT THE CHILDREN” and for a lot of their base, that was the end of the argument, that’s WHAT THEY VOTED FOR. Democrats and the Harris campaign thought the campaign was the economy and the price of eggs. Out here in MAGA-Land, a lot of folks were voting on who they thought would ‘protect the children’. Turns out Democrats were listening to political consultants, MAGA was talking to rural voters.

Only now the tide is turning. With Trump himself refusing to release the complete files, some of his loudest defenders are scratching their heads. Rogan said it out loud,  how can you have safe communities and safe schools when a network of rich pedophiles is running the show? And here’s the thing nobody in MAGA World likes to say until now, it ain’t just Democrats. The stink is wafting from both sides of the aisle.

You look close enough and you start seeing names, big names, that span parties, countries, and industries. That list is the kind of thing that could end careers, wreck fortunes, and maybe even ‘change’ governments. Which might explain why we have our own Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares saying we have to be “careful” releasing the files because innocent people might get hurt.

Governor, “With all due respect.” as Ricky Bobby would say, the “innocent” you ought to be worried about are the girls who were preyed upon. They were children. They didn’t have PR firms or billion-dollar hedge funds. They didn’t have private jets to fly away from trouble. They were trapped. And if the Epstein Files can shine a light on who was involved, then let it shine bright.

Out here in the mountains, we have a saying. The chickens have come home to roost. And when they do, they don’t come in quietly. They flap and squawk, feathers flying everywhere, scratching up the dirt and leaving a mess you can smell a mile away. These particular chickens are roosting in some mighty expensive coops on both sides of the political fence. And when the rooster finally crows, everyone in the barnyard is going to hear it, whether they want to or not. That’s when you find out who’s been strutting proud and who’s been hiding in the shadows hoping nobody notices.

I’ll tell you something else. I’ve always told my kids to be careful who they run with. Even if you keep your own hands clean, sooner or later you’ll be answering for what they did. Augustus McCrae in Larry McMurtry's novel, Lonesome Dove said it best to his old friend Jake Spoon right before they hung him. “Ride with an outlaw, die with him. I admit it’s a harsh code. But you rode on the other side long enough to know how it works.”

What we have here is a herd of outlaws in thousand-dollar suits, hiding behind lawyers, political parties, and campaign donations. And too many so-called leaders are willing to look the other way because they’re afraid of what will crawl out once the rock gets turned over.

You want to know why both parties’ leadership are fairly silent? It’s simple. They’re both spooked. That list could have donors they can’t afford to lose. It could have sitting members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries, maybe even a president or two. You release that list and the whole tree shakes  and a lot of folks in Washington are scared of what might hit the ground.

But justice is supposed to be blind. It’s not supposed to peek out from under the blindfold to see if the accused has a famous name or a fat wallet. These people, whoever they are, wherever they sit, need to face the same justice any small-town criminal would face.

I’m not here to burn just the MAGA names. I want the ones on my side roasted too. I’ll gladly shake hands across the aisle and say, “Let’s convict them ALL.” Because out here we have another saying,  if you’re going to call yourself a lawman, don’t be afraid to look under every rock, even the one with your fishing buddy hiding under it.

And here’s my last thought. Folks in Washington and Richmond can play careful all they want, but the truth has a way of slipping out, just like water through a screen door. It might not happen today or tomorrow, but those files will see daylight. And when they do, we’ll see who’s been roosting in the shadows and who’s been guarding the fox instead of the henhouse.

When that day comes, I hope America remembers the simplest saying we’ve got in these mountains. “You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.”.

Till next time, that’s the story from the ‘Back Forty’. — John W. Peace II

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John W. Peace II is a fifth-generation farmer from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he grew up on his family’s dairy, Clinch Haven Farms, and still lives today with the farm producing hay. He’s a proud father to Trey and Shelby Peace, and partner in life to Cathy Swinney. A Virginia Tech graduate with graduate studies at Penn State, he served as the youngest Chair of the Wise County Board of Supervisors (2004–2008). John co-owns SafeHavenServices.co and urTOPIX LLC (urTopixLLC.com), a Democratic campaign consulting firm focused on reaching rural voters that is sponsored by www.RuralAmericaRising.com PAC. He’s also a two-time Amazon bestselling author. Learn more at www.JohnWPeace.com.